BY sHAIKH jAMALUDDIN | NT
PANAJI: Golden gangs, Rs 10 gangs, laptop gangs, HBT gangs, car gangs, motorcycle gangs, mobile gangs, computer gangs —  the list of gangs in the criminal world is quite long.
Speaking to this daily, a police official said that motive of all these gangs is to rob, survive and thrive — they have perfected the tricks of their trade.

Of late mobile gangs have become too active and  baffled the investigating police officials in the state, he added.
Gang members present themselves as good citizens; they set out on their job as early as possible — well-dressed and upto the mark and on the pretext of traveling from one place to another, board the jam-packed buses and try to lean on the persons next to them and keep applying pressure on one side of the body and from other side flick mobiles from the pockets of the innocent ladies, young boys and old persons without letting the victims know what happened, he informed.
Mobile gangs target mostly travelling ladies and younger generation, who in absence of empty seats in the buses stand clutching the loops on the horizontal rod with bags on their shoulders, or purses in their hands; the mobile thieves just take blade and make a slight cut on the purses or bags so that all the belonging which include most of the times mobile handsets slide down and they make good with the handsets.
The police said that they (thieves) immediately pass on the handsets to their gang members waiting in the corner and once the job is done they don’t stay in the buses but alight at the next stop due to the fear of getting caught.
Some gangs operate on trains —  gang members sit in a train and offer stupefying substance in tea or coffee or any other eatable to person sitting next to them and once he goes to sleep then they rob him of his mobile handset.
Many victims shy away from registering the cases while some prefer to register missing cases as some mobile companies provide  insurance cover, informed the police officer.